Prison Break
by hamnet
Summary: When a group of Thought Entities mysteriously attacked the capital of the powerful kingdom of Alphard, Seto was immediately blamed for it. After breaking out of prison with the help of a mysterious boy named Crow, Seto decides that he must find a way to clear the bounty on his head, but things seem to take a turn for the worst.
1. Chapter 1

"You feel like a candle in a hurricane, just like a picture with a broken frame. Alone and helpless, like you've lost your fight, but you'll be alright. You'll be alright. 'Cause when push comes to shove you taste what you're made of you might bend till you break 'cause it's all you can take. You get mad, you get strong, wipe your hands, shake it off then you stand!" –Rascal Flatts

* * *

_Prison Break_

**I**

The sound of a voice jolted a boy awake. He blinked a few times, sleep still apparent in his eyes, before hearing the voice call out to him. The boy sat up groggily, rubbing his sleepy eyes as he yawned, and scratched the back of his head. The voice was muffled and distant; the boy could easily ignore the shout if he wanted to. He looked at the door opposite his bed, wondering who the person shouting could be and what he wanted. He sat there for a few more minutes, his head bobbing a little to the side, as if the bed was pulling him back and he was resisting. After what felt like forever, the boy decided that yes, it's time to actually leave the bed and head out. He got off his bed, with remorse apparent in his eyes and left his bedroom. The shouting became clearer now, and he could hear the voice calling his name.

"Seto! Are you there? I was sent here to get you. You're supposed to help Mrs. Leico in her workshop today!"

That made the boy, whose name was Seto according to the shouting person, fully recover from his sleepiness. Seto ran into the living/dining room and opened his door, muttering apologies to the owner of the voice.

"Sorry, sorry!" He said, a sheepish smile forming in his lips. "I-I got a bit carried away on sleeping. Please tell them I'm on my way, and oh, you don't have to wait for me. Thanks, Len."

The boy, Len, nodded at Seto, chocolate brown hair falling over his amber eyes. "Hm, well, you did kind of run around the whole night with your friend to find her cat," he said. "Found her already?"

"Yeah," Seto replied. "She was stuck on a tree. Neither of us can climb trees, so we had to go back to get a ladder."

"Oh boy," Len said in a deadpanned voice. "Sounded fun. Well, you better get ready now. And don't forget to bring your bamboo sword."

"Yeah."

It didn't take long for Seto to quickly change after his friend left. It's going to be a full moon tonight, which meant there would be a sparring session in the workshop this afternoon. He wore his usual white turtleneck shirt underneath his cyan coat, along with his brown pants and shoes. With the belts and enormous pockets on his coat, it seemed like Seto's clothing was heavy and hard to move with. It wasn't really in Seto's opinion. Maybe it was because he was strong enough to handle wearing such heavy clothing, or he just had grown used to it. People usually said it was the latter. Seto left his bedroom and stepped into the room in which the living room and the dining room were found. He walked to his left, towards the dinner table, and got a loaf of bread from the loaf pan sitting on the middle of the table. He munched on it as he thought about what to expect from today's session. He thought about the cheers of the kids, the dust that covered his clothes, and most of all, that great feeling of winning a match. Seto smiled as he finished off his bread.

Today was going to be wonderful.

He left his home with his bamboo sword in hand. Today was cloudy, Seto observed, but it didn't seem like it was going to rain, since the sun was trying to forcefully peek through the heaps of clouds. It somehow gave a dramatic lighting effect in the town's surroundings, as if the sun was an enormous spotlight trying to light random houses and stands at once. Houses were lined side by side, and a few stands selling food and goodies were in front of them. Carts and carriages passed by, and small shops were bustling with people.

"Everyone's surprisingly busy today," Seto murmured to himself.

That had to be expected. For one: Seto lived in the shopping district. The shopping district was always busy. After his grandfather died three years ago, Seto decided to finally move from the rice fields to the shopping district of the town to make a living there. For two: it was the harvesting season. Those who made a good harvest must be busy preparing their harvested goods for export. If there was anything Gakura was most known for, it would be their high quality fresh fruits and vegetables, but there's another thing his hometown was proud of.

Once he neared the town's plaza, Seto saw the Crystal Palace looming ahead, standing mighty and proud on top of the levitated land on the end of town. Seto had to stop to admire the architecture of the palace. Although the plaza was still a few miles from the palace, Seto could still see the grand home of the royal family completely. Its walls usually shimmered and gleamed from the sunlight, but because of the clouds almost blocking the bright rays of the sun, the shimmering lessened; however, the palace was still beautiful, the colours of the walls blending perfectly with the grey of the shadows created by the clouds. A small waterfall was on the side of the palace, providing water that the farmers needed for their rice fields. Behind the palace were the port and the ocean, which would explain the waterfall by the palace. How the water the falls provided was fresh, Seto had no idea.

He continued on walking and entered the plaza, which was busier compared to the shopping district. At the middle of the plaza, there stood a grand fountain, spouting water from its top. It was three storeys high, and each was circular in shape. At the top was a glittering triangular crystal where the water comes out. A ray of sunlight shone on the fountain like a spotlight, and it made it prettier than usual. Three separate roads stemmed out of the plaza, all leading to different places in town. The right road led to the rice fields, the one in the middle led to the nobles' quarters and eventually to the palace, and the last one led to the middle quarters, where most of the townspeople lived. Seto headed to the middle quarters, and as he entered, familiar people started greeting him. Some of them, Seto recognised, but as usual, he didn't recognise most of them. They must be friends with grandpa, he thought.

Seto's grandfather died recently, just a few months ago. Although he was just fifteen, Seto decided to move out of their home in the rice fields to the town and make his living there, and his grandfather's acquaintances offered him a small home for a monthly price.

Merchants will always stay merchants.

Seto turned a sharp right towards a small, two-storey building. He smiled. He was now approaching the workshop. There were kids the same age of him teaching the younger children about to spar and practising their swords; one of those was Len. His chocolate-brown hair looked darker underneath the shadows of the clouds, and his amber eyes were in complete determination. Seto beamed at his friend's attitude. It looked like Len was completely determined to beat Seto today. Len seemed to notice the approaching maroon-haired boy and turned to greet him, waving his hand at Seto's direction.

"You finally got here!" He said with a grin and turned to look at the entrance of the building, screaming, "The master swordsman's here! Let's start the sparring!"

* * *

At first glance, the maroon-haired boy seemed too harmless and innocent; one could say he's a weak kid, and he definitely was, but that's not how sword fighting went for him. It's always in the reflexes and stamina, and surprisingly, Seto had both of those. The match between Len and Seto already lasted for almost thirty minutes, and both boys were already tired, mostly Len, and it brought him on the disadvantageous side of the the match. Len clumsily stepped forward and thrust his sword towards Seto, but the other boy immediately stepped to the side, and with an upward swing (which Seto almost had trouble doing since he's already tired), he hits Len's sword out of his hand. It flew out of the brunette's hand and into the ground. The brunette made the mistake of following the sword with his eyes, and once he looked back at Seto, the maroon-haired boy's bamboo sword was already aimed at his neck. Len frowned, while Seto grinned triumphantly.

"I win!" He announces, and the spectators around them clapped. Len's shoulders slumped forward, but congratulated his friend nonetheless.

"Geez, I'll never win against you," Len says with a grumble. Seto shrugged.

"I'm pretty sure you will!" Seto said with a smile. Len only sighed, and looked at his friend with amusement. That boy could be adorable sometimes. There was a clap behind them, and everyone turned to look at Mrs. Leico, the owner of the workshop.

"All right, boys," she said. "That was the last match for today's sparring. Everyone up for a snack?"

There were cheers from the children and the teenagers as they headed towards the building. Before Seto entered the workshop, he looked behind him and towards the setting sun. It glowed orange, painting the entire sky a mixture of orange and red. Stars also started coming out and peppered the sky with glowing blue and purple. It was beautiful, but somehow, Seto felt uncomfortable. There was something in the stars that felt so off-putting.

"Yo, Seto," Len called out. He was waving at him with a piece of bread roll in his hand. "You going in or not?"

"Yeah, coming!" Seto replied, and with one last look at the sky he headed towards the workshop.

* * *

Seto stopped by his friend's cat shop before going home. The moon exchanged places with the sun and was now casting pretty silvery light throughout the already tired town. The Crystal Palace can be seen from where Seto was standing, and at night it seemed to glow at its brightest, taking in all the light it can muster.

Seto walked in the cat shop and the bell hanging on its door rang softly. Seto looked around, and as expected, his friend wasn't there at all, although the place wasn't left disorganised unlike before. Seto smiled at that improvement.

The store was completely made of wood, sans the walls. The floor, the shelves, the counter and chairs for visitors were made of brightly-coloured wood. Lots of cat food and cat accessories were neatly lined on the shelves on each side of the store and a dark, wooden door was behind the counter, slightly opened. It wasn't loud enough, but there were shuffling of clothes and feet behind the wooden door. Seto's friend must be busy feeding her cats.

"Ren?" Seto called out, and the shuffling of feet stopped. The boy heard footsteps growing loud very fast, and a silver-haired girl appeared behind the wooden door. Her short hair was neatly arranged with a headband with a flower ornament on it; a lily, she informed Seto once. Her purple dress reached only above her knee and had pink linings on the edges of the skirt and sleeves. She was barefoot, and her magenta eyes shone brightly with delight as she went out of the counter to meet her childhood friend.

"Hey!" Ren greeted with a smile. "Glad you came on time! The cats are growing restless, you know. They just can't wait to be fed." Ren sighed. "So anyway come on in!"

Before Seto could respond, Ren grabbed his wrist and pulled him from the store into her home. Cats meowed here and there as they approach the two. Ren knelt down and started petting the cats one by one. Looking at Seto, she ordered, "Go get more cat food at the cabinets over there while I distract them." She pointed at the cabinets on the other side of the room they're in. "You don't have to look for a plate to put them in. Just the cans would do."

Seto nodded and walked to the cabinets, almost stepping a drowsing cat's tail in the process. That earned him a glare of warning from Ren, and Seto sweatdropped at that. Once he took enough food for the cats, he set down his bamboo sword on the couch beside the cabinets and opened the cans of cat food one by one and handed them to Ren, who in turn fed them to the cats. It took a lot of time to finish, considering the huge amount of cats living with Ren. Once they were done, Ren returned the cats to that one room in the house that she herself designed to make sure the cats were comfortable. She returned to the living room, after going to the kitchen to get dinner for Seto and herself, and she found her friend gazing at the sky with big eyes.

"The sky's pretty tonight, right?" She asked her friend. "The stars are glowing blue and purple." Ren added, putting down the dinner on the table. Seto didn't reply.

"Seto?"

"I… I don't think those are stars…," Seto said; his eyes were clouded with alarm and worry. Ren frowned at Seto's words. She walked to him and shoved him aside as she looked at the sky. Ren blinked and felt as if her jaw crashed to the ground.

"W-What are _those_?" The silver-haired girl asked with alarm. Seto shook his head.

"I-I don't r-really know…," Seto stuttered. "I think w-we should go and—"

The loud crash just a few blocks away from Ren's house cut Seto mid-sentence. Screams suddenly can be heard, and houses started burning. Weird, blue looking monsters appeared literally out of nowhere, some throwing fireballs at houses and jellyfish-like creatures also started attacking people on the streets. Ren and Seto exchanged brief glances before springing into action; Seto got his bamboo sword and ran to the store while Ren ran to bring her cats to a safe place.

The town was peaceful. It had always been, but in just a blink of an eye, the most beautiful town and proud capital of the Kingdom of Alphard was in a raging hellfire.

* * *

hello ham here uwu

this chapter was supposed to be longer, but i guess i have to cut it off since it got longer than i expected it to be. before i decided to cut it, the doc already had 11 pages with 4 893 words AND counting. the part i cut took almost half of the doc (wow)

since almost half of chapter one will be placed in chapter two, i guess therell be a fast update to this one, and basically, there will be a drastic change of plans in chapter counts for this introductory arc

yeah

also: that oc over there? yeah, that brunette, len? hes just there for the first two or three chapters. i wont be inserting ocs so you be happy (and if i do theyll most likely just be in one arc or something)


	2. Chapter 2

**II**

* * *

Seto literally had no idea why he decided to run out of the store to fend off enemies, because he's pretty sure that's not what he's doing. It was more like he's doing the opposite. The jellyfish-like monsters floated after him as he sharply turned to a back alley of the middle quarters. He was sure he's far from Ren's house now, and he didn't mean to do that. Seto turned left, almost tripping over his own foot, and he stopped to a dead end. Seto stared at the enormous wall in front of him, his mouth forming an O.

He's so screwed.

Seto turned around. The jellyfishes lessened in number, but they were still definitely there and were still many. Seto made a silent prayer to any gods out there to help him at least survive this. He took a deep breath as the jellyfishes approach, and with a shrill scream he charged at them.

Seto attacked the nearest one first. He hit it sideways, and it easily gave off and hit the wall, disintegrating upon impact. Seto blinked and sighed in relief. They were light, which means they were easier to knock down. He could do this. He ran to the next one. This time it tried to fight. It slid to the side as Seto made a downward slash and it tackled him. Seto stumbled a little before regaining his balance, and he ducked when two more tried to tackle him. He swung his bamboo sword upwards and the two jellyfish fell to the ground. Before they could float back up again, Seto jumped and stepped on the two jellyfish, disintegrating them, and he turned around to swing his sword to hit another jellyfish who tried to approach him. This was how Seto's very first real battle went: slash, hit, jump on them, slash, hit, and jump on them. By the time they're gone, Seto was huffing heavily and drenched in his own sweat. He never thought that he'd have to fight for his life and if he did, Seto was sure he'd survive it easily; however, if he had to be honest with himself, he completely forgot everything he learnt in the workshop during that battle. He mainly just flailed around and jumped on those jellyfish like they were some sort of trampoline. There was a loud crash and a rumble just above him. Seto felt rocks falling on his head, and when he looked up, he found an enormous rubble of stones falling towards him.

"Wha…!" Seto jumped backwards as the fallen debris hit the ground with a loud and deafening thud. He blinked, and just then did he realise that he was just inches away from certain death. He looked up to where the debris came from, and saw that the building was on fire. Seto gulped, a bead of sweat rolling down the side of his face, before heading out of the back alley he was in, thinking it would be best to stay out of those.

Seto looked left and right after making it out from the back alley alive. Houses were burning, and people were running around in panic. In the middle of the chaos, Seto saw a little girl crying. He approached the young girl, easily avoiding the panicking townspeople. He knelt beside her and asked, "Are you lost?" to which the young girl nodded as an answer. Seto nodded and carried her, smiling as he did so. "I can bring you to a safe place," he told the young girl. "You can find your parents there once this is over. So stop crying anymore; you'll be alright."

The young girl hiccupped and rubbed her eyes as Seto cradled her in his arms. He took a deep breath and hoped that Ren's house wasn't in ruins yet, but knowing her it probably wasn't at all, not even a scratch. He started running back to Ren's house, avoiding battle as much as possible. The young girl curled her tiny fingers on Seto's oversized coat, burying her face in fear of the monsters around them. Seto hugged her protectively with his one hand, while the other busied itself with fending off monsters. After what felt like forever, Seto managed to reach Ren's cat shop, breathing heavily. Just like he expected, it still wasn't in ruins, and Ren was busy fending off monsters with the help of some of her most competent cats.

"R-Ren…!" Seto called out, almost breathless. Ren looked at him as she knocked a jellyfish down with a broom and stepped on it violently. She looked at the girl and raised an eyebrow at her.

"Your kid?"

"What? No! I-I just found her crying…" Seto felt his cheeks heat up at the sudden statement of his friend. Ren giggled as she approached them. Seto rolled his eyes at her and sighed. How could Ren joke in such a situation? Once Ren was close enough, she leaned towards the girl to pat her head. The young girl looked at her, with tears starting to form in her eyes. Her pink lips trembled. This made Ren give her a sympathetic look.

"Aw, you poor girl," Ren said as she looked at Seto to ask permission to carry her. Seto happily let her, relieved that he wasn't carrying a heavy little girl anymore. Ren pat the young girl's back softly as she started crying on Ren's shoulder. "Hush, hush; it's okay…," Ren cooed, "We'll look for your parents, all right?"

The girl only stopped crying once Ren brought her into her house and left her in the company of cats, much to Ren and Seto's relief. However, the situation outside Ren's quiet home didn't change at all. In fact, it was getting worse as each second passed. Ren turned to look at Seto, who was looking outside the window. Ren noted the fear that was clouding in Seto's deep blue eyes. "Seto," Ren started, "We've got to do something…"

"Y-Yeah, I know," Seto replies. "But what can we do? I mean, aren't we just ordinary citizens? This kind of work is something for the Lunar Knights to do, right?"

"But we have to help!" Ren argued. "At least we're capable of defending ourselves and others! That's a good thing right? We could start with that. And besides," Ren waved her hand towards the scene outside the window, "can you see them? Those Lunar Knights? They're not there!" Ren said indignantly. "Do we wait for them? No we don't. We have to do something!"

"O-Okay! Okay… I get your point," Seto said and sighed, looking at Ren from under his bangs. "What's your plan, then? I don't have any…"

Ren tapped a finger under her chin as she thought of an answer to Seto's question. "Hm, well—"

A fireball was seen flying towards the house and hit the roof with a loud _boom! _It caused a quake throughout the house, a few vases fell and crashed to the floor, cats meowed in alarm and the little girl playing with them started crying. Seto stood in surprise but fell back onto the couch he was sitting on because of the shaking of the house, while Ren stumbled and fell on the floor with a loud, "WE HAVE TO GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!"

The two teenagers immediately evacuated the house. Seto carried the little girl (who was wailing now) while Ren took charge of bringing all the cats out. Another fireball was lurched toward Ren's house exactly after Ren brought out the last cat with her, and the second floor exploded, spitting splinters of wood and glass everywhere. Ren could only watch in shock as her house got consumed by fire, and Seto had to call her several times before she snapped out from her daze.

"W-We really need to get out of here!" Seto snapped, if stuttering while being adorably mad counted as one. Ren rolled her magenta eyes and ran past her friend.

"I know that!" She screamed back, dozens of cats on her trail. "Follow me; we're going to the workshop!"

If it weren't for Ren's courageous (and scarily strong; Seto made sure he'll never agitate any one of them) cats, Seto and his silver-haired friend would have faced countless numbers of monsters. Most of them the cats could handle, but the spider-like monsters (who were the source of the fireballs) were on a different level. Seto and Ren decided it was best to hide from them. However, they kept getting seen, and unfortunately, it cost Ren a few of her cats. They reached the workshop, smoke and dust covered them both as well as the little girl Seto was holding. Few cats had scratches, some were already limping, but nothing made Ren sadder than the fact that she lost several of her cats who were willing to save her.

The workshop looked like it had been attacked recently. Parts of its wooden walls were splintered and broken; the fences were completely trampled over, and several windows were broken. It looked horrible, but it didn't look completely destroyed unlike the other houses. Being a retired soldier of the Lunar Knights, Mrs. Leico sure did a good job keeping her workshop safe. The two friends approached the workshop, and once they were near the entrance, Seto opened his mouth and screamed.

"Mrs. Leico! Are you here? We need shelter!"

At first, there wasn't any answer, and Seto had to try calling out several times until finally, a woman who looked in her late forties opened the door. She was wearing a white tunic with leather belt around her torso and a sword was strapped to her side. Her hair was peppered with white because of age. Her steel grey eyes widened in surprise and worry.

"Seto! And Ren too! Oh dear, I should have opened the door sooner…" Her eyes went to the little girl Seto was carrying. "Oh my, and you have a little girl with you too! Get in, get in!"

Once they were in the warm workshop, Seto and Ren collapsed to the floor, breathing heavily. Mrs. Leico knelt in front of the young girl and asked, "Are you all right?" The girl nodded at her, much to her relief. She then looked at Ren and Seto. "You two seemed to have been busy protecting this girl and these cute felines," she said, eyeing the cats surrounding Ren. Seto nodded and looked at the broken window, worried. Mrs. Leico sighed and ruffled Seto's hair. "Don't worry, you're safe here." She assured. "I've got the borders against those thought entities set up. It's something I learnt when I was still serving as a knight." Seto looked at her curiously.

"Thought entities?" He asked.

"Yes," was the reply. "You don't need to know more about them other than the fact that they're monsters that usually lurk in the forest." The old woman made a face, as if the thought confused her. "They're usually passive. Something must have provoked them."

There was a loud knock on the door. Mrs. Leico held the hilt of her sword as she stood and went to open the door. She swung it open, and a panicking brunette greeted her. He was covered in soot and dust, and his amber eyes were darting everywhere. She blinked. "Len? You're back! Are you all right? I told you that you shouldn't have gone back there! It's dangerous!"

"I saw something enormous at the fountain!" Len said, flailing his arms around. "It's scary, and has tentacles! It looked some sort of a giant tree with tentacles or something, and I'm pretty sure that's the boss!"

Before Len could say more, the old woman pulled him into the workshop and closed the door. "A tree? That could have been their command tower. Yes, you're right, Len; that should be the boss. Where are the knights? Were they fighting it?"

"No they weren't; they couldn't come closer," replied Len. "So they decided to leave it for a while and now they're on their way here!"

Seto felt like a huge burden was lifted from his shoulders. Ren must have felt the same thing too, judging from loud sigh that came from the girl. Mrs. Leico didn't seem satisfied with what she heard, though.

"The Lunar Knights… what are they doing?" The old woman grumbled. "When I was still a knight, we weren't this bad!" She drew her sword and opened the door. Seto and Len widened their eyes.

"W-Where you going?" Seto asked. He won't let the old woman go. It's too dangerous! Not to mention she's a little old…

"Out to show those punks who's the boss!" The old woman answered. "The Lunar Knights are useless. We have to do something about it or this town is going to fall!" She opened the door and looked at the teenagers. "Don't leave, okay?"

"But—"

The old woman stepped out of the door and slammed it closed. Len and Seto stood there side by side, staring at the door. It was quiet for a while until Ren stood up from the floor and dusted her clothes.

"Are we just gonna sit here and wait for her?" Ren asked. She was unsure of what to do. Len turned to face her. His fists were shaking, and he looked mad.

"No!" He screamed, and it made Seto jump and cover his left ear in pain. Len turned to face Seto and as he did so, he pointed at the wooden door where the old woman left. "Seto, follow her!"

"H-huh?!" Seto stammered. "Why me?"

"Because you're the only who can catch up to her without dying!" answered Len. "You're the best in our sword training. You can defend yourself!"

"It's hard and I almost got killed fighting those!"

"All the more reason for you to go! You had experience already!"

"B-But she said—"

Len stormed away from him, cutting Seto mid-sentence. He and Ren exchanged curious glances, wondering what Len was up to. When the brunette returned, he was holding a one-handed sword and shoved it into Seto's hands. The heaviness of the sword caught Seto off guard, and the sword fell to the ground, causing the young girl to shriek and run behind Ren.

"That thing's too heavy!"

"Just take it and go out!"

"I can't carry something that hea—"

"WILL THE TWO OF YOU STOP?!" Ren's voice echoed through the workshop, and both boys fell silent. Ren picked up Seto's bamboo sword that had been laying on the floor since they arrived and shoved it to Seto. "If you can't take that one, then take this," she ordered, giving Seto a glare. The boy had no choice but to do what she said. Ren nodded approvingly at this decision. "Get the hell out of here."

"But—"

"And don't come back until Mrs. Leico's here!" She added. Seto flinched and nodded.

"O-Okay…"

Seto walked towards the door and opened it. Before he could leave, Ren called him again.

"Be careful, okay?"

* * *

So far, Seto managed to avoid the lurking monsters using the back alleys. Surprisingly, there weren't any of them around, and if they were, they're pretty easy to beat. The fact that the Lunar Knights finally made their appearance made the situation easier.

The Lunar Knights were the exclusive military front of the town, trained specifically to protect Gakura and its people. They had two divisions: the Intelligence Division and the Offense Division. They were supposed to act fast once the attack started; especially these were Thought Entities that attacked the town. It was disappointing and frustrating that they didn't act as fast they should. Seto frowned and shook the thought away.

As he navigated the shopping district's back alleys, Seto kept feeling around his coat's pockets for something. He knew he had it, even when he's not wearing it. Seto remembered he dropped the locket that contained the strange blue stone that his grandfather used to own into one his coat's pockets. It was strange, how his grandfather asked Seto to keep it safe. When he was still alive, Seto's grandfather seemed to hold no importance to it, just always keeping it inside his desk drawer and sometimes losing it, even. However, in the last letter of Seto's grandpa, it was written that he should take good care of it. _"Always keep it close"_, it said. _"It will keep you safe."_

Seto was relieved to find the locket in one of the coat's back pockets. As he turned left, and out of the back alleys, Seto slid the locket out of the pocket and hung it around his neck, then proceeded to tuck it underneath his coat.

Seto managed to slip out of the middle quarters and stumble into the plaza. The plaza was in a horrible state. Enormous splinters of wood were scattered, rumbles of stones lay dangerously around, but no thought entities were within the area. Seto looked around; his eyes were focused solely on finding an old woman. Judging from Mrs. Leico's words, he figured that the old woman would be there. When Seto finally found her, she… was not in the state he was expecting her to be in.

The old woman was lying unconscious on the far side of the fountain, her sword metres away from her reach. Seto ran to her and knelt beside her, checking if she was still alive.

"Mrs. Leico?" Seto called out, avoiding from touching her as much as he could. It was something he learnt back there in the workshop. Don't touch an unconscious person if you just happened to find them unconscious; they might have broken bones. Seto didn't get any response from the old woman, so he called out again. "Mrs. Leico?"

There was a grumble and a chortle, indicating that the old woman was still alive. Seto sighed and leaned closer to her, trying to see if she was saying something. Mrs. Leico whispered words to him, her tired eyes fixed at something behind Seto.

"… Leave," she murmured, "tree… behind…"

Seto widened his eyes upon hearing the old woman's words. He completely forgot about the enormous monster! There were loud noises of leaves shuffling and wood creaking as an enormous root of the gigantic tree, now functioning as a tentacle, swiftly swiped Seto metres away from the old woman. Seto landed with his back on the ground and he winced in pain. His bamboo sword flew a few feet away from him, and as he desperately sat back up, Seto saw the tree flailing its roots around, as if confused, like it knows something important was around but didn't know where exactly it was, before raising the root that was used to hit Seto from Mrs. Leico and swinging it down towards the said old woman. Seto's eyes widened and he opened his mouth, his hand on the blue stone of his late grandpa.

"_**STOP!"**_

Wind furiously swirled in the whole plaza, and splinters of wood and leaves started flying around. The tree suddenly stopped; its root was just a few inches on Mrs. Leico who started whimpering. Seto blinked in surprise, and then his face made a confused look for a few seconds until realisation dawned on him.

_It will keep you safe._

With shaking legs, Seto tried to stand, and looked at the tree which looked frozen in place. It looked tall and old and was way taller than the fountain. Its thick, dark roots were wrapped around the fountain. Seto took a shaky breath. If what he thought was right, then he could save the town without letting any more fights to take place.

"U-Umm," the boy stuttered, "Can y-you take that," he pointed, with a shaking finger, at the root just above the old woman, "off? P-Please?"

Seto received silence; the tree wasn't moving, and definitely its root wasn't retracting from Mrs. Leico. He was scared that the tree' root will plummet unto the defenceless woman before crushing him with the very same root. The ground shook, and in a sudden but very slow way, the tree moved its root away from Mrs. Leico and was now just hanging in the air, as if waiting for Seto to tell it where to put that. Seto heaved a shaky sigh of relief and looked back at the monster.

"Oh, uh… please leave?" Seto asked politely. "Please also tell your friends to do the same, too…"

The ground shook harder than the first, and Seto thought it was resisting, until the tree started glowing blue, and it burst into small particles of blue shimmering light, floating towards the sky. Seto looked at it in awe, and a few moments later, several particles of glowing light started floating up into the sky. Some were glowing purple, while others blue, all going to the direction towards the full moon. Seto marvelled at the lovely sight, wondering if the thought entities went to the moon. He stood there for a few moments, trying to make sense what just happened until he remembered the reason why he went there in the first place. The maroon-haired boy ran towards the old woman. He could have run faster if he wasn't limping. Seto knelt beside her, mindful of his injured leg.

"Mrs. Leico?" Seto called. He received no response, so he leaned closer, this time to check her breathing. To the young boy's relief, she was still breathing; Seto could safely assume she just fell unconscious. Seto decided it was best to just stay with Mrs. Leico until help arrived, and luckily, Seto didn't have to wait for too long. A few minutes later, he could hear someone shouting his name from the route to the middle quarters, and then Seto saw that familiar silver-hair that belonged to Ren as she ran towards him. Seto didn't have the chance to greet his friend since she took him in a tight hug, and Seto felt all the air got squeezed from his lungs. Ren broke the hug, hands on Seto's shoulders and a wide smile plastered on her face.

"You're alive!" Ren said happily. Seto laughed as he nodded.

"I guess I am. Although—ow!" Seto flinched and held Ren's hand away from his left leg, which was injured due the hit he received from the tree. Ren gave him a confused look. Seto mouthed "injured", and Ren's mouth formed an O, nodding in understanding. Ren looked at the soldiers approaching and called out for one of them, and she told him that Seto was injured and must be healed.

It was midnight when Seto returned to his home, surprised that his small home was unscathed, save for the few scratches in the windows and walls outside. Ren told Seto that his other friend, Len, was nowhere to be found. It made the maroon-haired boy worried, but she told Seto to just rest and leave the searching to the Knights.

"You did so many things already!" She snapped at Seto when he tried to protest. Afterwards, she waved goodbye to Seto after she made sure that her friend's tucked in bed. Now, Seto was lying on his bed, reliving everything that happened that night. It was quiet and dark, the twinkling of the stars and the moon being the only light source in Seto's small, dark room. Everything seemed so absurd to him, but he knew all of those really happened. What got him confused the most was the scene that happened on the last minutes of the attack.

Why did the monster obey him? Was it the stone? It could have been the stone… but if it was the stone, shouldn't the monster know that he had it? The stone was hidden, though… Seto sighed, took the locket which was now sitting on his nightstand and brought out the blue stone. He held it against the full moon and looked at it closely. It was glowing under the moonlight, and it seem like it had a small glowing fire dancing freely within the stone. Seto wasn't sure what to think of it. Maybe his mind was just playing tricks on him now that he was tired. He put the stone back in the locket, wore it around his neck, and before he knew it, he fell asleep.

* * *

It was the sound of a fist pounding on his house door loudly that woke Seto up from his blissful sleep. He wasn't sure what time it was, but one thing was for sure: he wasn't supposed to be woken up at this kind of hour. Seto grumbled something about people not being mindful of their manners when he left his bed to open the door. When Seto opened the door, he saw that familiar mop of chocolate-brown hair and amber eyes. Standing beside Len was a man in full knight armour. Seto groggily blinked at them, his mouth hanging slightly open before he yawned.

Then Len pointed an accusing finger at him.

"That's him," he told the knight. "He was the one I saw talking to the monsters before the attack!"

Seto didn't even have the chance to process what his friend had said when the knight took his hand and handcuffed it.

"You're coming with me," said the knight, "You're under arrest for treason."

* * *

just as promised, an update!

ok i guess only like, three people are expecting an update but hey this fics just starting

also ive decided to quit cutting chapters since this is only just the introductory arc, so each chapter will be painfully long

lol sorry everyone

and also, its gonna be crows chapter next! oh man i cant wait to write that guy

im p sure there are like, shit tons of errors in this chapter (and fic) because 1: this entire fic will be unbeta-d until someone decided that they cant handle the wrong grammar anymore and tell me to get myself a beta reader and 2: i only got to finish writing this really late and im too tired to proofread this

do u guys even know i chose this over my quiz tomorrow

im so responsible

so yea

ok bye


	3. Chapter 3

Edit (feb 21): hello i noticed that this chapter is full of errors and it lacked a decent amount of details so i edited this

i hope you enjoy the better chapter now

* * *

**III**

* * *

When Crow received the news about the attack in Gakura, he was having a little trouble getting one of his master's customers to calm the fuck down. It was shining bright at where Crow and his master were during that time. It was hot, and the little stand he and his master had set up was bustling with customers, and it made the atmosphere hotter than necessary. People were demanding things here and there, and Crow had to immediately tend to what they needed before they start getting impatient and start ranting about useless crap. To make things worse, one of the customers demanded to get her silverware that had recently sold out a few minutes before she arrived at the stand. Crow explained politely that the silverware she wanted had sold out, but the woman wasn't buying any excuses. Now the two were just bickering at each other for ten minutes while Crow's master ended up entertaining the other remaining customers.

"Now," Crow said, his patience wearing thin. "I'm trying to tell you here that you were like, five minutes too late! We have other wares here, so why don't you just—"

"You listen to me!" the woman insisted. "That silverware is what I wanted, and I'm going to have it! Just bring out your other stocks so—"

Crow raised his hands in the air in complete annoyance. His patience metre had reached zero and he was completely sure it was going to blow if this went any further. "WE SOLD OUT!"

"So I said bring your other sto—"

"WE. SOLD. OUT! No more stocks are left!" Crow buried his face in his hands and tried to stop himself from screaming. Why did he decide that he wanted to be a merchant? Oh right, because he had no other choice left. He never wanted to deal with customers with big mouths and just kept demanding, and demanding, and demanding. Stupid customers and their stupid demands. Crow looked at the woman, expecting her to finally understand the situation, but the woman only looked confused.

"You got no more stocks left?"

"Duh! All of them were sold already." Crow explained as he rubbed his temples with his gloved hands. How could this woman be so dumb? Before the woman opened her mouth again, probably to say something very stupid, someone called the young journeyman's name. Crow immediately whipped his head to the direction where the voice came from, and he took his only chance of getting away from the woman. "Looks like I got some important appointment!" Crow said as he looked back at the confused woman before waving, a big grin plastered on his face. "See ya later or whatever! Not like I plan to see you again." Before the woman could say anything, Crow jogged away from her and towards the messenger that called his name. By the looks of the man's uniform, he must be one of those messengers of the Lunar Knights, which meant Crow's friend had a message for him. When the messenger saw the approaching journeyman, he bowed in respect and handed him a letter with the Lunar Knights' official seal over the envelope's flap.

"I assume you're Crow?" The messenger asked. Crow nodded.

"Yeah; the one and only," he answered cockily, and eyeing the letter, asked, "So what's up? She's not the type to send me love letters in times like this." The messenger didn't seem to be amused at the joke, and instead brought out a few papers for Crow to sign. Once Crow was done signing, the messenger left, leaving Crow alone with the letter in his hand. He didn't waste time looking at the envelope; he'd seen that thing several times already. He started tearing the seal off the envelope and opened its flap. Crow pulled out a scented paper with a scowl. He hated the smell of that girl's scented papers. Crow started reading it, and seconds later, his feline eyes were wide and his mouth was hanging open.

Well, shit.

* * *

"Hm? You wanna check out on your girlfriend in Gakura?" Crow's master asked him. The day was over and they were setting down the stand where they made a huge profit. The moon still glowed brightly even though it wasn't in full moon anymore, and the stars twinkled and danced in the sky. It was a pretty sight, but Crow didn't notice as his face made a scowl.

"No, she's not my girlfriend! She'll never be one. She's a pain," Crow said as he tossed the wooden box containing colourful cloths for sewing into their carriage. The box landed with a loud thud, and the horse which was to pull the carriage whinnied at what Crow did. The boy didn't seem to care as he crossed his arms and glared at the master craftsman. The old man only laughed.

"Ah, yes, yes; I know what you mean. You're worried about her, eh? Wouldn't blame you, kid. She's one of your very few friends."

Crow opened to his mouth to say that no, he had a lot of friends, thank you very much. However, before he could even speak, the old man turned around to face him and threw him a small messenger bag. Crow blinked at the bag. It was bulky and somewhat heavy, but something he could carry, nonetheless. He looked at the old man who was looking back at him with a small smile.

"What am I gonna do with this?" Crow asked. The old master only raised his eyebrows at him. Crow blinked and eyed him suspiciously. "What?"

"I thought I should actually allow you to go. You're a journeyman already anyway." The old man waved his hand towards the stacks of boxes and crossed his arms. "But I'll let you go after you get all these into the carriage and count the money we had earned today."

Crow's shoulders slumped, looking at the numerous stacks of boxes and baskets as his master walked past him and gave him a pat on the shoulder. Somehow, Crow wished he didn't care so much for his _only_ friend.

* * *

Crow decided to take a walk around the devastated town after he visited his friend. It turned out that she was all right, not hurt, and obviously not dead. Crow sighed and facepalmed. _Obviously she wouldn't be dead, doofus, _Crow mentally scolded himself. _She's too important for those dumb Knights to leave her._ As he walked around town, Crow couldn't help but notice how tensed the people were. Some were looking around cautiously; some were avoiding from getting too close to passers-by, like they were monsters in disguise and would pounce on them when they get too close. All in all, the atmosphere was tense, and it became tenser when Crow entered the shopping district.

Crow couldn't really exactly pinpoint what's going on in the district. The people seemed worried, and most of them talked in hushed voices while setting their houses and shops back to the way they were before the attack. Crow tried eavesdropping on some of the people's conversations; he couldn't hear much, but he managed to pick up some words: Thought Entities, enormous tree, the plaza, and a boy who was always the topic of the conversation. Most of the people he eavesdropped on talked about the same person. They said it was a marooned-haired boy who was so nice and kind and it was impossible for him to do such a thing. What the thing was, Crow knew. His friend ranted about some guy who lured the monsters into town. Was this the guy she was talking about? Crow stopped at a small crowd beside a worn down shop, and judging by its broken sign, it could have been a cat shop. Crow approached the crowd, straining to hear what they were talking about, and wasn't surprised at all when they were talking about the same boy.

"… Couldn't have done that!" said a girl with silver hair. She was cradling a cat in her arms, its forelegs covered in bandages. "He's too gentle to do such a thing, and he was with me the whole time before the attack!"

The people around the silver-haired girl nodded in agreement.

"There's a possibility someone have framed him," said one of them.

"Or the guy who pointed him was a false witness," said another.

"Yes! After all, there weren't enough evidence to begin with," an old woman said. "And considering the fact that the Lunar Knights seemed to have weakened drastically, there should be a fair chance that the monsters took the advantage and attacked the town!"

"We should question him!" A guy with fiery red hair suggested. "The guy who accused him should be questioned."

"I agree, but how can we do that?" A ginger-haired girl asked miserably. "The boy who pointed at him is under witness protection. No one could go near him but his family…"

Everyone simultaneously sighed.

As he watched the crowd continue on with their conversation, Crow couldn't help but wonder who this boy was. Everyone in this district seemed to care for the boy so much to the point that they were questioning even the way the Lunar Knights handled things. Crow had to agree with the old woman, though; for some reason, it seemed like the Lunar Knight lost its footing and came crashing down. They were supposed to be the best! They protected the capital, and keeping it safe was crucial; if Gakura falls, then the rest of Alphard will fall too. What's the royal family doing?

"Hey, you!" Crow jumped in surprised and blinked towards to the direction of the voice, towards the silver-haired girl. The bandaged cat was still in her slender arms, and it looked like it was sleeping. Crow looked at the girl with a small frown in his face.

"What?"

"You've been listening to us for a while now," the silver-haired said, eyeing Crow suspiciously. "Do you know something? Or maybe you're spying on us for the Knights! You were spying on us, weren't you?"

The people behind her flinched and looked at one another in worry. Crow looked at the girl as if she said he was bald.

"What? No! I'd rather die than to serve in the military," Crow replied indignantly as he crossed his arms. He shot the girl a glare, feline green eyes locked on large magenta eyes. "What's wrong with listening? I paid a friend a visit after hearing what happened to her hometown. Is it wrong I decided that I want to know what the hell just happened here?"

"There's something stupid going on here is what!" the girl said, and with her right hand she pulled the feline-eyed boy into the crowd, the sleeping cat staying cradled on her left arm. "Wanna know what happened? Then I'll tell you everything, and you're going to know how dumb and useless the Lunar Knights are."

* * *

Crow agreed that yes, the Lunar Knights were stupid, and so was his friend for not doing anything about it. After hearing Ren's side of the story, Crow went to the headquarters of the Lunar Knights and demanded a meeting with his friend which the knights, who very well knew how Crow had such a short fuse, permitted. He talked to his friend about the boy named Seto, and she shared the townspeople's suspicions.

"I had doubts about it too, you know," she had told Crow. "But I needed to gather clues and evidence first before objecting what the officials decided, or I'm going to be in big trouble."

Crow left the headquarters disappointed. He told what he found out to Ren, the pretty girl with silver hair, who was busy rebuilding her wrecked house. She huffed and rolled her eyes, stating it was something she had expected already. When Crow was telling her about his news, he was careful not to accidentally mention that he had a friend working for the Knights. The girl might get mad at him and kick him out. As Ren continued to rant about the Knights, he muted her in his mind and began taking in his surroundings that he didn't notice before. Most houses and shops were in ruins, and although the streets were now clean from garbage and remains of destroyed carts and houses, it still looked fresh from an all-out attack. Street lights were bent, and there were dents in the streets. Although some of the houses were slowly being built back up, most families didn't have a place to stay in for the night. There was help from the palace, though. They provided tents and food that could last the people for a month, which was enough time for them to recover from the attack. They also provided wood and supplies that the townspeople would need in building their houses back up. Looks like the king and queen weren't just sitting down and drinking tea.

"Are you even listening to me?" Ren snapped at Crow as she waved the hammer on her hand in front of him. Crow snapped out from his thoughts and brought his attention toward the silver-haired girl, blinking.

"Nope," Crow answered bluntly. Ren narrowed her eyes at him. After a silent stare-off with Ren annoyed and Crow growing more amused as seconds passed, Ren sighed and went back to her hammering.

"Never mind," she grumbled, the metal and heavy hammer pounding on the wooden wall of her house. "You know, if you're not going to help, you can just go. You're bothering me."

"I can help," Crow said kindly. Ren stopped hammering and looked at Crow, eyebrows raised. Crow noted that her eyes were sparkling, like relieved that finally someone so kind offered their hand.

"Great!" Ren said happily as she pointed at the stacks of woods in front of her doorstep. "Could you pretty please take some of those and—"

"No, I don't mean that kind of help."

Ren's face fell at Crow's words. Her hand with the hammer fell to her side as she turned around and looked at him. "O-kay," she said with a confused look on her face. "You don't meant that, so what kind of help?"

* * *

The wailing of the sirens and the shouting of the knights in the prison excited Crow.

Dangerous situations always excited Crow. He always wanted to be a pirate. A pirate always had an adventure, searching for treasure, fighting enemies and monsters, and raiding towns. A pirate would always put himself in danger just for the heck of it. If Crow would be a pirate, he was certain that he'd be doing his job well, but then, being a pirate was impossible for him, he had to settle for something less. Numerous times Crow always found himself in prison, arrested for causing trouble here and there, but this time, the reason was different.

He's going to break someone out of prison.

The new experience thrilled him. It completely did. It was different from starting a bar fight or wrestling with wolves or wild dogs. He's going to break a criminal out of prison; well, technically the criminal wasn't really a criminal according to the townspeople, but whatever. Crow easily navigated through the maze of cells and bars that separated criminals from freedom; he'd been in the place a lot now that he knew it like the back of his hand. It wasn't because he'd been thrown in the place a lot; he was only thrown in there twice, but most of the time it was because his friend always dragged him there. Crow walked to the left and heard footsteps. Immediately, the boy retreated, hiding on the far corner of the hallway to avoid getting caught.

"Ugh, I can't believe someone just easily broke in," a knight grumbled. There was no answer, and Crow figured he was talking to himself. "And to think it's been ten minutes now and we still haven't found the damn trespasser. This is ridiculous." The footsteps passed by where Crow was hiding. The boy held his breath and readied himself to run in case the knight goes to here he hid. Unfortunately, the knight didn't as he continued mumbling, and Crow heard really helpful information. "Now that I think about it, it's so hard to think that meek boy in the third floor lured in the monsters. He looked like he couldn't even lift a box of tomatoes." Crow blinked and smiled at that. Checkmate.

Crow sighed in relief after the sound of footsteps had disappeared, and he decided that walking in a small hallway like this would easily give him away to the knights. He had to act fast. As everyone knew, catching someone with tons of prison records sneaking around in the middle of a break in wasn't always good. Crow slipped out of his hiding place and looked for the place where the keys were hidden. It should be somewhere that knights would be crowded in, Crow thought. The offices? Or maybe, the reception area?

"Reception area it is," the young journeyman decided as he turned around and ran to where he came from.

It wasn't so hard for Crow to sneak the keys out from under the guard's nose as he dozed off peacefully in his station. It was amazing, really, how the dumb guard managed to fall asleep in the middle of the chaos Crow caused. The boy was now walking at a steady pace, looking around for the armoury. The boy Crow was going to break out will need a weapon, for sure. After a few more minutes of walking around in circles, he found the armoury, and using the string of keys he had, Crow opened the armoury and snatched the nearest weapon he managed to find: a naginata. Crow studied the firm and long weapon. The curved blade at the end wasn't sharp, he noticed, but it could still impale someone badly if the weapon was used right. The long handle seemed old, and he wondered just how long the weapon wasn't used. Probably ages, or eons. Just… for a long damn time. Crow continued walking and entered the jail cells in the third floor. It was surprisingly quiet; there must be no one there, but the boy knew better. Crow's footsteps echoed in the dark hallway and a meek voice echoed back, startling him.

"W-Who's there?" said the voice, obviously confused and scared. "U-Um, there are sirens outside. What's going on? Are you a Knight? Are you here to relocate me?"

"No, kid. Where the hell are you?" Crow said, assuming that the boy talking to him was Seto.

"I'm at the end of the hallway, um, at the right, I think."

"All right." Crow followed the directions the voice gave him, and he found himself standing in front of a jail cell, a metal door separating him and the boy who owned the meek voice. "You here?" Crow asked as he knocked the metal door. The sound of knocking echoed, and it created an eerie sound.

"Yeah."

"Okay. I'm busting you out, you hear me?" Crow started fiddling with the keys and inserted them one by one. There was shuffling of clothes on the other side, indicating that the boy stood up.

"Wait, bust me out? Are you mad?"

"No." The key Crow inserted didn't fit and he cursed silently, getting a new key and inserting it. Footsteps were heard from the other side of the door going closer to Crow, and for some reason, Crow knew that the boy was frowning.

"You can't do that."

"Huh. Why not?"

"Because that's not right!" The boy insisted. "I want to get out of here the right way."

"Not buying it." The key didn't fit once again, and this time Crow frowned.

"I don't even know you! Who are you?"

"Call me Crow. C-R-O-W, in case you don't know how to spell. Who are you?"

"Wha… are you seriously helping someone you _don't know_ break out of prison?"

"I was just making sure I'm about to bust out the right guy," Crow clarified. The key didn't fit in, and Crow decided to lean the naginata beside the door so he could change keys faster. "So? Not gonna tell me?"

"… Seto."

The key fit right in and Crow turned the key clockwise. There was a loud click before Crow opened the door. It was heavy, and it made a loud creaking sound as the door swung open. Standing in front of him was a boy who looked almost the same age as him. He had maroon hair and big, blue eyes. He wore this ridiculously oversized cyan coat and was staring right at him with curious eyes. Seto's eyes seemed to sparkle for some reason. Crow didn't really know. Were they sparkling or glowing? He had no idea; he just knew Seto's eyes were pretty.

"I'm sorry, but I'm staying here," Seto told Crow sternly. This seemed to snap Crow out of his daze and look at the boy with a raised eyebrow.

"Do you have any idea what you're saying?" Crow asked in reply, to which Seto nodded as an answer.

"Yes. Sorry for making you go all the trouble to get me out, but I'm not going."

Crow rolled his eyes at him. This kid was serious. What the hell.

"Okay fine," Crow said, raising both of his hands. "You stay here while people continue to blame you for something you didn't do. Do you know what kind of punishment awaits someone who was charged with treason?"

Seto looked hesitant to answer, his pretty blue eyes looking downwards as if he'd taken interest at his old shoes. Crow placed his hands on his hips and nodded.

"Oh, you know; that's good, but just for emphasis, I'll say it: they get beheaded."

Seto gulped and shook his head, as if shaking the thought away. Thinking yourself getting beheaded right in front of everyone was obviously not a pretty thought. Crow sighed and offered his gloved hand. The maroon-haired boy looked at it.

"So, you coming or not?"

Seto looked at it for a few seconds or so, then, hesitantly, he took Crow's hand. Seto walked out of prison and turned around to close the metal door behind him, letting go of Crow's hand. When he turned back, Crow threw the naginata at him, which Seto easily caught. The meek boy looked at it blinked at Crow.

"What's this? A spear?"

"It's not a spear, dumbo. It's a naginata." Crow flashed Seto a grin. "Hope you can wield those things."

"This wasn't taught to us back in the workshop."

"Oh, well too bad," Crow said. "Then just use the hilt of that thing to knock Knights out!"

Crow offered his hand again, telling the other boy that he'd take the lead and guide the both of them out of there, which Seto agreed on. Together, joining their hands, the two boys forced their way out of the prison.

* * *

yay they finally met

i just realised that chapter one and chapter two were actually just chapter one cut to two. anyway i dont think this ended up being longer than expected, but thats okay i guess

also

i do apologise for the any grammatical errors i may have made in this chapter. i wrote this on a wednesday night, fresh from school and tired, so i cant really think straight and stuff

um yea

im going to write chapter four during the weekend, and hopefully get it posted on sunday or monday, philippine time :x

yea okay im going to sleep now gbye


	4. Chapter 4

before we start this chapter:

_**FUCK WRITERS BLOCK**_

i struggled in this darn chapter. i wasnt satisfied with how i was writing the first few paragraphs of this chapter, and just kept erasing and erasing and erasing and holy fuck outlines are useless im telling you

(actually they are helpful they just dont help when you have no idea how to start the chapter like really)

i even had to reread the first chapter of this fanfic just to remind myself that i am writing this in 3rd person limited point of view (i know theres a formal word to that i just forgot)

im just happy that i finally finished this chapter

r and r because i almost died writing this chapter please thank uwu

* * *

**IV**

* * *

The sun was already peeking through the mountains when Crow and Seto finally arrived at a safe place: Crow's house. With a shaky sigh, Seto collapsed into the sofa in the living room, while the other boy closed the windows and doors to make sure no one would see Seto. Crow's house wasn't that big, Seto noticed; it was enough to shelter one person. There were only two doors in the house: the front door and another door which Seto assumed led to the bedroom. Just like in Seto's home, the living room and the dining room were occupying the same place. Crow sat on one of the chairs by the dining table, yawning. All of the running around they did last night was starting to take a toll on the two boys. Seto could feel his eyes drooping from tiredness, and he made a loud yawn.

"Well, I guess all those running is finally asking for payment," Crow said as he rubbed his eyes to keep himself awake. Seto only nodded, making another yawn.

"Yeah; you're right," Seto replied, "I-I guess I should go home now, huh? I don't think there's anything else left for me to do, right?"

Somehow, that seemed to slap Crow out of his drowsy state. He looked at Seto incredulously, and the maroon-haired boy felt uncomfortable under his gaze. "W-What?" Seto asked, trying to stop a yawn from coming.

"Hey, did I just hear that right?" Crow inquired as he crossed his arms, his green eyes still eyeing the other boy as if he grew another head. "Do you even know what you're saying?"

"I… yes?" came the reply from the maroon-haired boy. Crow made a face, and Seto had to summon all his willpower not to burst out laughing at the face the other boy made. Crow seemed serious, and Seto figured laughing at him will only get him in trouble.

"You can't do that," Crow said matter-of-factly. Seto looked at him, confusion apparent in his face. The feline-eyed boy rolled his eyes at him. "You were arrested for treason, did you forget?" Crow reminded Seto; utter disbelief was obvious in his tone. Seto blinked. Oh. He forgot about that. Seto was about to apologise, but instead of muttering an apology, he found himself yawning loudly and blinking hard in a vain attempt to stay awake. He tried to apologise for the behaviour but ended up mumbling jumbled words, and it made things awkward, at least for him. Seto blushed, completely embarrassed. There was a sigh from Crow, and as he stood up, he told Seto, "You're making yourself look stupid, y'know that? You should get some rest. Hold on while I go get some blankets for you."

Seto didn't even wait for Crow to stand up from his chair; with a soft squeak from the sofa, Seto lied down, finally letting his eyes close.

* * *

The smell of food being cooked woke Seto up. He sat up on the sofa he fell asleep in, his eyes blinking groggily. Seto scanned the room he was in, and his blue eyes immediately fell on the familiar person hovering over the stove. Seto could hear the person muttering curses as he cracked open an egg and broke its yolk. Set on the dinner table were two plates, a loaf pan with loaves of bread in it, two pairs of spoon and fork, and two glasses of water. It looked like Crow was busy preparing food for the two of them. Seto looked at the window behind him, opening the closed curtain carefully. By the looks of it, the town was already asleep. The moon was shining brightly as usual, providing more light than the street lights could. The streets were empty, and the maroon-haired boy could hear the wind rustling softly. It was then Seto realised that he slept the whole day.

"Ah, crap," Crow grumbled a little loudly, causing Seto to turn and look at him. Crow was scratching the back of his head in annoyance. Although Seto couldn't see Crow's face, he was sure that he was scowling at the stove. "Darn it," complained Crow, "I should have asked her to come over. I seriously can't do this. Why the hell am I doing this anyway? This is so stupid."

"Um, I can help."

Crow visibly flinched and almost threw the spatula he was holding backwards towards Seto, possibly from surprise, and turned sharply towards Seto's direction. Crow's cat-like eyes were glaring daggers at him, and the maroon-haired boy couldn't help but smile at his companion's reaction. Seto giggled softly, causing Crow to narrow his eyes at him.

"Sorry! Sorry," he said between giggles, "I just… didn't think you're really jumpy and stuff."

Crow was still glaring at him, but he didn't look like he was about to scream bloody murder like before. Crow slapped his free hand unto his face with a sigh, and waved the spatula in resignation. When he looked at Seto again, Crow didn't look mad anymore, just sort of tired. It made Seto wonder just how many hours did Crow spend trying to make a fried egg. Crow shoved the spatula to Seto, pulled out a chair from the dinner table and sat on it, eyeing Seto.

"Okay. Do whatever you want. I'll just sit here." Crow said, crossing his arms. Seto nodded in understanding.

"All right!"

Seto walked to the stove and blinked in surprise. The stove and sink was a mess. Shells of eggs scattered around, and there was a plate of burnt hotdogs placed just beside a bowl of broken egg yolks in the sink. Seto looked at Crow, who looked rather embarrassed and pissed at the same time and was looking away from him.

"You're really bad at this, aren't you?" Seto taunted with a playful smile. Crow could only scoff as a reply.

"Just shut up and cook; we're not talking about that and I'm hungry."

In living alone, knowing how to cook was important. Seto knew that, so cooking had been one of the things he'd been learning ever since he moved from the rice fields. He wasn't very good at it, but he's good enough to make edible dishes, unlike a certain boy sitting behind him.

Speaking of Crow… he found Crow unusual, if he had to be honest. His feline eyes were kind of unusual, and his cocky attitude was really annoying, not to mention that Crow was really skilful in handling different weapons (specifically a certain naginata; with all the twists and turns, Crow looked like he was dancing when he fought with it), but those weren't the reason why Seto found the boy weird. For starters, they didn't know each other until the night Crow released him from prison. Why did Crow even help Seto? That itself was weird. Second, Crow didn't seem like he's willing to let Seto go back to his home. The maroon-haired boy understood that he had a bounty on his head now, but he was sure he could manage to sneak back to his home without getting caught. That was a little suspicious.

Seto looked at the eggs he was frying. The whites of the eggs are slowly getting cooked, starting to have that white colour from being transparent. Surely Crow wouldn't mind sunny side ups, would he? He looked back at Crow and found that he was staring at the closed window. Seto couldn't help but grow more curious. Why did Crow help him?

"Hey, Crow?" Seto called to which Crow replied with a bored "Yeah?" As Seto took the eggs one by one and put them on a serving plate, he asked, "Why did you help me?"

There was a minute of silence before Crow answered. It was something Seto didn't expect, though. "I promised someone I'll bust you out," Crow replied. As Seto served the eggs on the table, he shot Crow a look. "A-And I was really bored; I had nothing else better to do," Crow added quickly, waving his hand in dismissal. Seto eyed Crow curiously.

"Who's this 'someone'?" Seto inquired. Crow looked at the plate of sunny side up eggs with interest and took two loaves of bread and an egg to his plate before answering.

"An annoying cat girl named Ren," he told Seto. He dipped bread on the egg yolk and looked completely pleased that Seto left the yolk raw. Crow bit on the bread and munched on it as he looked at Seto who looked surprised.

"You know Ren?"

"Yeah; I just met her yesterday, though, just like you. She never shuts up about how stupid the Lunar Knights are and all that." Crow looked at Seto with an amused look and grinned. "Are you two dating?"

Seto felt his cheeks heat up incredibly fast, and judging by Crows wider grin he was blushing furiously. He opened his mouth then closed it, then repeated the action. He couldn't get himself to speak from the embarrassment. "I… we aren't….! N-no!" Seto stuttered, his embarrassment slowly turning to indignation. "W-We're not dating! We're just friends!" Stupid Crow! The other boy laughed at him in amusement. It was boisterous and annoying. Really annoying. Seto had a feeling this was a revenge for making fun of Crow moments ago.

"Yeah, sure, whatever," Crow said, the annoying grin still plastered on his face. He tapped the plate on the other side of the table where he was sitting and asked Seto, "Aren't you gonna eat? We should probably talk about your petty little problem."

Seto was completely glad they changed the subject.

As they had their dinner/breakfast ("or whatever," Crow told Seto, "Who cares. We're eating and that's the important thing here."), the feline-eyed boy explained the situation to Seto. He told him that he went outside to see what was going on after he had broken Seto out and found that Seto's face was already plastered in every wall and store that could possibly needed some sticking up of wanted posters. "So that's why you can't go out right now," he told Seto, "Security's pretty tight. They really want you back; you're the only culprit they have. Can't ruin the reputation of being great. Gotta catch all the bad guys or whatever." When Seto gave him a confused look, Crow rolled his eyes and said, "Look, the point is: don't go out. You've got big money on your head and everyone wants it."

Seto sighed and leaned on his chair, looking at the blank ceiling. He felt like his head was going to explode. "What am I gonna do?" He asked miserably. "I stay there, and I get killed. I go out, I'm still not safe." He looked at Crow as if he would know the answer. "And I can't go back now, because I'm pretty sure they'll strangle me to death." Crow only shrugged at him as he chugged down the water from his glass.

"Or you could find the real culprit," Crow suggested after drinking. Seto blinked at him. "It's gonna be hard," Crow added, "but I guess it's better than to hide forever in fear."

"That's… you're right," Seto agreed with a bright smile. However, as if remembering something horrible, Seto's smile turned upside down. "But I don't have a clue to begin with. How are we going to search for the culprit if we don't have a lead?"

"Dunno," Crow said nonchalantly. He stretched his arms in the air before continuing. "But we can always come up with leads based on what we know. If you don't know yet, Thought Entities are usually passive and live isolated from people, like the forest where we came through when we're escaping. Knowing this, we can't just assume that they felt like attacking town or some douche led them here. There's a high chance someone provoked them to attack the town."

Seto looked at Crow in bewilderment. For once, Crow didn't sound mean at all. He was being incredibly helpful, to be honest. "So, we're going to look for the person who provoked them?"

"Obviously, nuthead." Seto frowned at the name Crow just called him. "We'll start tomorrow, after we get enough help for our 'investigation'." Crow quoted the last word with his hands. "Anyway, I'm sleeping. I'm tired." Crow stood up from his seat and went to his bedroom without even muttering a goodnight, leaving Seto completely alone with plates for him to clean. Seto sighed and gathered the dirty plates before washing them.

_At least we have something to start on_, Seto thought. _Hopefully I'll be able to clear my name in no time._

* * *

In the end, the only person Crow asked for help was Ren. After finding out that Crow had successfully broke Seto out and gave the Lunar Knights a good slap on the face, Ren didn't stop thanking Crow for helping, and the boy could only shrug as a response. It didn't take long for Crow to finally get sick of it, though.

"Can you be quiet?! If anyone finds out we're dead!" Crow snapped at Ren who in turn just smiled apologetically.

"Sorry, sorry! I didn't think you'd actually do it, you know?" Ren told Crow as she skipped beside him. Crow only rolled his eyes at her in response. Ren giggled. "Anyway, where is he?"

"He's in my house," Crow replied. "He's waiting for us there. He wanted to go see you personally, but I told him to keep his butt glued on the sofa. With his face plastered everywhere, I don't think there's someone who wouldn't recognise him."

Ren blinked at him. Her face then made a look of suspicion. "You have a house here?" She asked, "I thought you're a foreigner!"

"I am!" Crow replied immediately, noticing Ren's suspicious look at him. "I told you I have a friend here, right? She let me use a small house that she owns. I'm staying here until you guys fix the mess that I dragged myself into." Crow mentally sighed after Ren looked cheerful again. Crow made sure that he wouldn't get to Ren's bad side. Seto told him a lot of stories about it. They sounded like a horror story to Crow. After almost an hour of walking from Ren's house, they were now standing in front of Crow's small (borrowed) house. Crow didn't bother knocking and opened the front door, finding a certain redhead sitting obediently on the sofa. Crow had to stop for a second to think if Seto actually glued his butt on the sofa exactly like what Crow told him. Ren let herself into the house and hugged Seto who in turn laughed and hugged back. Crow closed the door behind him and scoffed at the two sappy friends sitting on the sofa.

"You're totally okay!" Ren said with a grin, "Crow didn't bully you, did he?" She didn't seem to notice the glare Crow was giving her. Seto smiled and shook his head.

"No, but he's a bit mean."

"You know I can totally throw you both outside," Crow told them as he crossed his arms. "You two can be sappy there while the knights drag Seto back to the prison."

Ren stuck out her tongue at Crow. "Whatever, Crow." She turned to look at Seto. "So, what gives? That guy over there came asking for help. I don't really see anything that needed help here. Is the sink broken? I can't fix that, you know."

"Oh, no. That's not it," Seto replied and he looked at Crow, who decided that he would fill in for him.

"Seto wants to look for the real culprit," Crow told Ren as he dragged a chair from the dinner table and sat down. He didn't need to explain, since Ren understood immediately. She should know that Seto needed to catch the culprit; Seto's wanted poster was pasted everywhere.

"I understand," Ren replied. She was a lot easier to talk to when she was serious, Crow noticed. "What kind of help do you need? I have connections, since I run a shop. I could ask customers, too."

"That's great help," Seto told her with a smile. _He should smile more often_, Crow thought. "You should ask about the people who usually go into the forest a lot."

Ren gave Seto a curious look. "Forest? Why?"

"Because that's where Thought Entities lurked," Crow provided. "Seto and I thought that maybe they were provoked. You see, they're passive beings and attacking isn't really much of their thing."

Ren nodded. "All right. A list of suspects, huh? Wow, we're playing detectives here."

Crow merely shrugged. "I guess. Whatever," he said in a deadpanned voice, "I should probably help out too or something. I can't really stay in one place for some reason. I prefer running around."

"What am I going to do, then?"

Ren and Crow turned to look at Seto, who was looking at them with those big blue eyes of his. Ren and Crow exchanged looks and looked back at Seto.

"Oh, um…" Ren looked like she herself didn't know. Crow figured he should fix that.

"Nothing," Crow stated nonchalantly. Ren shot him a glare which he ignored completely. "I don't think there's anything you can do right now. I guess you just wait here or something."

Seto seemed to understand. "Okay…" He mumbled and leaned into the sofa. Although he said okay, Seto's face was saying the exact opposite. Ren was now glaring daggers at Crow, but he didn't care. There was nothing wrong with what he said, was there?

"Don't worry too much about it," Ren told Seto. "You can't go out anyway. Don't worry about us. We'll find that suspect in no time!"

"As if that would be easy," Crow said from under his breath. Ren didn't hear, thankfully, and she stood up and looked at Seto. Her face was full of regret.

"For once, I have to agree with him," Ren said with a sigh. "But don't worry! You can still help out later when we have to narrow down the list of suspects. You know a lot of people too, right?" Seto nodded as a reply and smiled at Ren, who in return smiled back at him. "Well, that's decided, then!" Ren said and turned to Crow. "Let's get out of here. We still have some hunting to do, birdie!"

"What birdie are you talking abo—" Ren grabbed Crow by the collar and started dragging him outside, leaving Seto alone in the small house that was only lent to Crow by his friend.

* * *

The so-called "hunt" did not only take a day, but almost 2 weeks, which was almost half of the month ever since the attack. The people in Gakura were surprisingly able to recover from the attack quite fast, Crow noticed. Most people were back to business, even Ren, who decided to open a souvenir shop instead of a cat shop. In all those two weeks, Crow busied himself running around and asking people about the forest and who usually went there. It was hard, especially since Crow knew no one in Gakura aside from Ren, Seto, and his friend from the Lunar Knights. Crow considered asking his friend thrice, but he figured that involving a knight in this "hunt" might cause some trouble. He was worried Ren might cause a scene and punch his friend in the face. In those two weeks Seto also just stayed in the house, and because he had nothing to do, he ended up always cleaning the house, preparing food for the two of them, the things… housewives do. Crow had no idea how to react to the things he always found Seto do, so he just went along. Once, when Crow arrived home, he found Seto feeding a kitten. At first, Crow was fuming about it. He hated those. It reminded him of a girl who almost killed him once for accidentally stepping on her pet's tail.

"Take that thing out!" Crow snapped at Seto that time. The other boy just shook his head and held the small kitten closer to him, away from a certain boy whose eyes looked almost identical to a cat. Ironic that Crow hated those felines.

"I can't do that!" replied Seto defensively. "She was crying outside and she was injured! I can't just leave her like that…"

Then Seto and the kitten gave Crow that _look._ At first, Crow's resolve to kick the cat out was strong, but after a few minutes of glaring at those pair of big, blue sparkling eyes, Crow gave in. Since then, when Crow objected or disagreed with something, Seto just had to make that _look_, and Crow's resolve to say no just crumbled. Heck, Seto even managed to convince Crow to name the very same kitten he picked up outside that night. Crow ended up naming the kitten Lux, and when Seto asked why he named it that, Crow only shrugged and told him that the cat was completely white.

"What's that supposed to do with the name Lux?" Seto asked him as he stroked the white ball of fur resting between him and Crow on the couch. Crow rolled his eyes at Seto.

"What, you don't know? Lux means light," Crow explained. Seto blinked then looked at the white feline, and then he smiled.

"That's a beautiful name you came up with, Crow," Seto complimented as he looked at Crow. Their eyes locked for a minute, sparkling blue eyes on feline green ones, before Crow looked away, shrugging.

"I don't really see what's so beautiful about it," he replied.

He was never going to tell anyone about that weird feeling he had in his chest that time.

In those two weeks, Crow didn't actually expect that he'd grow fond of the stupid things Seto did, like that one time he attempted to fix the sink (it got broken; Ren's prediction came true) and made it worse, or when he mistook the salt for sugar and put two tablespoons of it in the lemon juice that he made for himself (he got sick for two days, and Crow and Ren argued about who will take care of him. Crow lost the fight.). He almost certainly didn't expect that he'd end up thinking about how Seto was doing at home every single time. Seto was clumsy and kind of dumb, yes, but Crow shouldn't be worrying that much, should he? Last time, he saw Seto fought those thought entities in the forest when they were escaping the prison. Seto was bad at using the naginata, so they exchanged weapons that time, and Crow found that Seto was good at wielding a dagger. Did he know how to wield a sword too? Crow would find that interesting. Seto's eyes were interesting too. They seem to sparkle, especially when the light seem to reflect in his eyes. They were pretty, to be honest.

"Hey, are you listening? Oh, hell, are you daydreaming? Hey!" Ren snapped her fingers in front of Crow in an attempt to get him out of his daze. Crow blinked, looking as if he just woke up, and after realising Ren had been snapping her fingers at him, glared at her. He slapped Ren's snapping hand away from him.

"Hey, stop that!" Crow grumbled. Ren frowned and put her hands on her hips.

"You weren't listening. Were you daydreaming? You looked like you were watching a really cheesy romantic movie, you know."

"Ew," was Crow's only response. "Whatever. What were you saying again?"

"You looked like you were watching a really cheesy romantic movie."

"Not that!" Crow complained. "The one before you started becoming a silly crab and began snapping at me."

"She was saying that the list would take at least another week or two to narrow down," Seto answered for Crow. He was sitting on the sofa, playing with Lux as he listened to their argument. "She said that if we wanted to finish this faster, we'll need more people. That's when she noticed you weren't listening and started snapping at you." Seto held Lux in the air as if she was flying. The kitten seemed amused by that. Crow nodded at Seto and crossed his arms, looking at Ren who seemed disappointed that Seto betrayed her.

"Well, okay, good idea, but how are we going to find more people?" Crow inquired with a raised eyebrow. Ren rolled her eyes as if the answer was so obvious, but really, it was not.

"We can ask some people in the shopping district!" Ren said. "Most of them are on our side. I'm pretty sure they'd agree to help." Crow didn't even think twice before he vetoed the idea. Ren's face fell, and the silver-haired girl frowned. "Why not?" She demanded. "That would work! And we'll get to finish this rather quickly. We could do this!"

"Let's be realistic here, shall we?" Crow said. "Have you seen the reward in Seto's wanted posters? It's big, big enough for someone to actually betray other people just to have it. And think about it, Seto's friend was the one who pointed at him. What was his name again? Oh, yeah—Len." Crow watched Ren as she opened and closed her mouth in an attempt to argue with him. She wasn't able to say anything in the end.

"I actually agree with Crow," Seto stated as he scratched Lux's stomach. "It's hard to trust them now… the reward is really big, who knows what they will do just to have it." Seto's eyes suddenly seemed miserable; Crow hated seeing that. "It's enough for a family to live without struggling and worrying for a long time," he added. "That's something even I would want to have."

There was heavy silence in the room, only the sound of Lux's mewls filled in the silence. Ren was the one who broke the ice with her heavy sigh.

"I guess it's really just the three of us," she mumbled miserably.

"Well, duh," Crow replied. "But, hey, we shouldn't waste our time feeling so sorry about it; if we want to get this over with, then let's go and finish this."

Ren clasped her hands together; her face was immediately bright after a minute of looking as if all hope was lost. She looked at Seto. "All right, then! Let's start. Seto, you're going to be a big help for this!" She handed him and Crow a list. Crow studied the long list as Ren started barking orders. "Look, I listed them down based on their lines of work," she said, "Crow, you know no one here, so I thought that maybe you could have the list of the servants of the nobles that were usually sent to the forest. You can go follow them around and try to see if they're acting suspicious."

"Aye, aye, captain," Crow said nonchalantly and yawned. Ren didn't seem to mind the lack of enthusiasm, though. Then Crow suddenly realised something and turned his head towards Ren so fast he thought he was going to break it. "Wait, wait!" Crow suddenly said. He pointed indignantly at the list. "I know no one here, so why would you give me a list of people to follow around when I don't even know who they are? Not to mention they serve nobles!"

"Just ask around!" Ren snapped. "At least we won't get into trouble when people become suspicious of you, because you're the only one who'll get in trouble."

"Hey!"

"Not to mention the Lunar Knights won't suspect you too much!" Ren said, crossing her arms. "You were thrown into prison twice already for starting a bar fight, right? If you get thrown in there for the third time, I'm sure they'll just be like 'Oh hell, not you again' and go on with their lives without asking you questions."

Seto looked at Crow with a baffled expression, and Crow remembered he never mentioned that to him. "You got arrested for starting a bar fight?" He asked Crow; his tone was full of confusion. "Twice?"

"Look, it's all in the past!" Crow replied as he glared at Ren. "And how did you know about that? I never mentioned it to anybody!"

"I told you I have connections," Ren said and smirked. "Look, just go already! Seto and I will stay here to take care of the list for the merchants and stuff."

Ren didn't let Crow object or protest some more, as she herself forced the boy out of the house and slammed the door shut behind him. Crow turned to glare daggers at the door, but he knew he couldn't really do anything about it anymore. He stuck out his tongue at the door before leaving.

Crow did exactly what Ren told him. What else could he do, anyway? He asked around about the people in his list, followed them while staying out of their line of vision, and when he was sure they weren't the culprit he was looking for, crossed them out in the list. After doing that for hours, Crow realised that it wasn't so hard to deem them guilty or not guilty. They weren't acting suspiciously, nor were they being paranoid or whatsoever. Usually, servants who were guilty of committing a crime ordered by their master were the most paranoid, in fear that once their master had been found guilty of a crime, they would tell the knights that the servants did it. Crow found that none of them were acting like that. That was how it went the whole day, until Crow got to the last person in the list.

The person worked under a count. A man in his early thirties, some people told Crow. The guy had been acting weird even before the attack, and after the attack itself, the man had become unapproachable. He'd only go to his master's manor at the start of the day, and when the night came, he'd go home avoiding everyone. When Crow found the man, he was already walking home. He was being sneaky and his eyes darted everywhere. Luckily, although Crow wasn't that stealthy, he managed to follow the man without getting caught. However, his luck wasn't going to last longer. The man might have sensed that someone was following him, so he went into the back alleys. Crow was hesitant to go in, but he had to follow the gent, so he decided to enter the back alleys as well.

He made the wrong decision.

Crow was still trying his best to stay low as he followed the servant, but they weren't even in the back alleys for five minutes when the man had stop and turned around. Crow hid behind one of the broken barrels in there and tried to peek. He noticed that the man was shaking in fear.

"W-Who's there?!" The old servant yelled, taking a shaky step forward. "Show yourself!"

Crow decided that it was probably best to just show up and confront the man. He came out of his hiding place and stood in front of the man with a cocky grin. "Hi," he said, trying to be casual. The man was still tense; he didn't seem to want to calm down.

"W-What do you want?" The man asked. "Do you want money, thief? You can have it; have it all!"

"What? No!" Crow answered and took a step forward, and the man flinched and took a step backward. "Wait, no, calm down," the boy told the gent. "I'm just here to talk to you about something." When the man didn't resist or tried to run, Crow took it as a good sign. "Did you go to the forest a few days before the Thought Entities attacked?"

"W-Why do you want to know?"

"I figured someone might have provoked them," Crow explained patiently. "They're passive beings; attacking isn't their thing unless someone angered them or somethi—"

All of a sudden, the man pulled out a revolver and pointed it at Crow's chest. Crow's eyes went wide as he looked at the revolver. It was loaded. Crow felt a lump forming in his throat. He knew he was fast and agile, but he never dared to challenge his agility with a gun.

"Are you trying to say _I _provoked them?" The servant demanded. Crow raised his hands and tried to force a smile.

"No; no, sir," Crow replied, sweat rolling on the side of his face. "I just wanted to ask you that maybe—"

"Yes!" The servant cried, "Yes, I went to the forest! My master told me, the count! Count Cressman ordered me to go to the forest!" He said, revolver still pointed at Crow. "He told me that he had lost a precious gem—a sparkling mauve gem! 'It was in the forest,' he said. 'Take it and bring it to me; I'll reward you greatly!'"

Crow blinked at the madman in front of him. _He stole it! A count ordered him to, _the young journeyman thought with relief. He had the information he needed, one problem solved. Now Crow had to find a way to get out of there before the servant decided to shoot him dead.

"You know my secret now!" The mad servant said; his face was bright and happy. "Now, I feel free! Free! I stole the monsters' precious gem! I no longer have to carry this secret alone!" Crow thought the servant was going to let him go, but then the servant's face contorted to an expression of loathe and regret. With a low gruff voice, he said, "Too bad I have to kill you."

Then he pulled the trigger.

* * *

im not kinda happy with how this turned out, tbh (although i like how i wrote the last part when the servant shot crow hehe)

our finals are coming (SUMMER!) so i might not update before that, so here have a cliffhanger

im so great


	5. Chapter 5

**V**

* * *

The sun finally set, and the stars and the moon had finally graced Gakura with their silvery light. The townspeople were preparing to end the night, closing shops and setting down stands that had been busy serving customers and displaying goods the whole day. Some, who were probably servants or simple hired workers, were already walking home from their respective work. They seemed tired and excited to finally see their family waiting for them to come home. Seto watched all of these unfold with tired blue eyes peeking through the window that was stationed just beside the front door. His companion, Ren, busied herself preparing dinner for her, Seto and Crow. Little Lux laid beside Seto on the sofa, nuzzling her head on the redhead's thigh to get his attention but to no avail.

Ren and Seto managed to finish crossing out suspects in their list that day. Surprisingly, crossing out people didn't take long unlike what Ren predicted. No one in their list was acting suspicious whatsoever, much to the pair's disappointment. Now, they were waiting for Crow to return home with news regarding his own list, but the boy still hadn't returned home yet. It was making Seto worried, really worried.

"You're getting yourself stressed out too much," Ren said as she mixed the soup she was making on the stove with a ladle. She raised the ladle towards her pink lips to get a taste before continuing, "He'll be back."

Seto closed his eyes and nodded, trying to reassure himself. The boy might have run into minor trouble during his search. Knowing Crow, there was a high chance that could have happened; especially now that Seto knew that the boy got himself arrested twice for getting into fights. However, Seto still wasn't convinced. If anything, thinking that Crow might have run into trouble only made him worry for him more. Seto couldn't help it; Crow had grown dear to him now.

In the middle of this so-called 'hunt', Seto found himself closer to Crow. The boy who seemed so distant and cold warmed up to Seto fast. Usually, Seto and Crow would argue, and then Ren would come to hit some sense back to the two boys, and in the end the boys would sit together on the sofa exchanging apologetic glances as Ren scolded them. Other times, the two would just have conversations, getting to know each other before one boy teased the other for something and it would break out into another argument. Ren once again had to hit the two boys for arguing and the cycle repeated. It was through these conversations that Seto learnt a lot of things about Crow. For one, although Crow's cooking was deadly (Seto found that out when he first came in this house), he was really good with his hands. Crow told Seto he was a journeyman. Being a young artisan, Crow could make amazing things out of scraps. Once, out of boredom and possibly to show off, Crow made a miniature Ferris wheel out of scraps of tin foil. That made up for the lack of cooking ability, Seto told Crow that time, and it broke to another argument. Crow seemed to be ADHD, too. It was something Seto observed. One time, Seto noticed that Crow never stopped fidgeting. Crow would sit down after walking around the house for God knew how long, and he'd start fiddling with something or tap on the armrest of the chair. To summarise: he never stopped doing something until it was time to sleep. The guy never ran out of energy.

Every time Ren and Crow would leave to continue on with their search, Seto just sat all alone playing with Lux. Seto found the kitten at the back of the house. It was crying and injured. He felt bad for it, so he took it in. Crow was the one who named her. How Seto managed to convince the boy to name that kitten was a long story, not to mention involved a lot of bickering once again. Crow explained to Seto why he named the kitten Lux. Apparently it meant light, like the moon_light _and _sunlight_ kind of light. It was a pretty name, Seto thought that time, and he didn't think twice before voicing what he thought.

Then their eyes locked for moment.

Seto never noticed how intriguing the other boy's eyes were. Sure, they were kind of unusual, but they weren't that bad. If anything they were pretty in an unusual way; they weren't the kind of eyes anyone would appreciate immediately, but if they look long enough, they'd notice the way those eyes seemed to glow under the light.

All of a sudden, Crow looked away from Seto, breaking the eye contact, and shrugged. "I don't really see what's so beautiful about it," he mumbled. Seto just nodded, thinking it would be best to not push the topic further, and he decided it was time to sleep. However, when he was already lying on the sofa with his pillows and blanket, Seto couldn't fall asleep. He kept glancing at the window, at the moon peeking through the small gap the curtains made in between, thinking how Crow's eyes would look wonderful under the moonlight.

"Seto?" Ren called, and the boy tore his eyes away from the window to look at her. She was already sitting on one the chairs by the dining table, motioning her hand towards the chair Seto always sat on. "Time to eat," Ren had told him, "The soup will grow cold if you don't eat it."

Seto didn't argue. He was tired, and he felt like he had strained his eyes just by looking outside. He stood up from the sofa and went to sit on his usual chair, eyeing the soup. He then took his spoon and started eating. They had dinner without any word exchanged; only the clanking of the spoons against their soup bowl filled in the silence. Dinner was finished; Ren gathered their plates and began washing them, but Crow still had not arrived home. Seto was sending the door worried glances, and a few minutes later, he looked at the wall clock just hanging above the door leading to Crow's bedroom to check the time. It read nine thirty-five p.m., the second hand moving with taunting ticks. Few minutes later, Ren walked beside Seto and looked at the clock as well. Ren made a face and heaved a heavy sigh, her gaze still on the clock.

"Crow isn't coming home tonight," Ren decided. "Let's go to sleep." Seto blinked and opened his mouth to argue, but Ren waved him off. "I know, I know," she said. "We should wait for him to come home. I understand your worry, Seto. I'm…" Ren sighed again, as if she couldn't believe the words coming out of her mouth. "… Worried too, but knowing him, Crow would be fine." She gave him a reassuring smile. Seto noticed that her magenta eyes seemed tired. He couldn't blame her, though. She'd spent almost a month running around in search of possible suspects 24/7. Seto decided to just agree with her; it's the least he could do as thanks for her help. Ren told Seto that she'd be sleeping in Crow's room, and Seto could only nod in response. There wasn't any other room in the house anyway. "If Crow comes home and I'm still asleep, don't hesitate to wake me," Ren told Seto.

"Okay," Seto replied with a small smile. "Good night."

Ren closed the lights before going to Crow's bedroom. She greeted the boy good night after making sure he was ready to go to sleep. Then Seto was alone in the dark room, sitting on the sofa he always slept on. His only source of light was the silvery light of the moon peeking through the curtains. His blanket and pillows were already fixed on the sofa, ready to be used. Little Lux laid on his lap, mewling at him. For another hour, Seto sat there; his blue eyes were glued on the front door. He couldn't get himself to sleep, not when he was worried sick for someone. Seto couldn't stop himself from thinking so many things that could have happened. _He could have gotten into trouble, _Seto thought._ Maybe he lost the list and ended up looking for it the whole time. Maybe an incident happened and he was arrested. Maybe… maybe…_

His mind was crowded with so many thoughts and with worry he didn't even notice his eyes slowly closing.

* * *

Seto woke up with a blanket over him. Instead of the moon's light, Seto saw the sun's orange rays trying to pass through the curtains that were closed shut. Apparently he'd fallen asleep without realising it. He was sprawled on the sofa, and the first thing he thought of was Lux. He might have slept on the poor kitten! Seto's eyes darted around as he sat up on the sofa, looking for that familiar ball of snow-white fur until it landed on the sofa on the other side of the living room. Lux was curled up in a ball on that sofa, its big round eyes staring right at him. The two looked at each other until finally, with a sigh, Seto smiled at her with his arms outstretched, telling the kitten to come to him. Lux immediately leapt from the sofa into Seto's arms and nuzzled its small head on the boy's chest, and Seto rubbed its back with a small chuckle. He then stood up, with Lux cradled in his arms, and examined the room. There weren't any signs that Ren woke up; Seto could only think that he had woken up a little too early. If that was the case… who put the blanket over him?

As if answering that question in Seto's mind, the front door opened, and a boy with jet-black hair and feline green eyes walked into the house. He was cradling a paper bag full of food in his one arm and his other hand was holding a white plastic bag that seemed to hold pieces of clothing. It didn't take Seto to realise that this certain boy was the boy Seto was worried sick for. Crow stopped in his tracks and looked at him.

"Oh, hey, you're awake," he said. "Don't sleep sitting next time. That'll give you a bad case of stiff neck. Believe me, I experienced it and it's not—"

"Crow!" Seto put down Lux against her will and ran to the other boy. Seto tried his best not to suddenly hug him tight. Crow seemed surprised, his green eyes blinking at him. Seto looked at Crow with a small frown on his face, his arms crossed. "Where were you?" he asked, and Crow glanced away from him and scratched his head.

"Uh, I had some minor trouble," Crow mumbled in reply, and then he looked at the paper bag he was holding. "But, look, that's not really important. I got food and—"

"It's important!" Seto exclaimed, and Crow could only look back at him. "We were so worried about you! What happened?"

"Doesn't matter; I'm here," Crow replied, and before Seto could respond, he walked towards the dining table and put the paper bag on it, taking the food he bought out of it one by one. Seto looked at Crow; the small frown was still on his face.

"What are you saying 'it doesn't matter'?" the maroon-haired boy demanded. "Do you know how worried I was? I-I thought something happened to you or something. I couldn't sleep last night."

Crow paused for a moment to mumble something, but Seto didn't catch it. Then Crow was back to what he was doing. "Won't happen again," Crow said in a much louder tone. "Uh…" He paused, and he looked hesitant before continuing. "Sorry about that."

There was silence between the two of them for a minute before Seto sighed and nodded. "Okay, fine," Seto said. "If you don't want to talk about it, I won't force you..." He walked towards the dinner table and stood beside Crow, eyeing the food he had bought. Crow bought some fruits and cooked meal for three, with a can of cat food along with them. Crow might have figured Ren was here, specifically in his bedroom. It was nice of him not to disturb her in her sleep. Seto's eyes then wandered towards the white plastic bag Crow brought with him. Just as he thought, it had clothes in it. They were black in colour along with fancy golden linings stitched on the hem. Seto wasn't sure what kind of clothes they were, though. He couldn't see them entirely, after all. Once Crow was done, he walked towards the sofa and sat on it, leaning on it with caution. Then Crow looked Seto and motioned him to sit on the other sofa. Without any question, Seto did, eyeing Crow curiously.

"Okay, about last night," Crow started. "Well, I found out who was really behind the attack."

Seto's eyes shone at that statement, and he leaned towards Crow. "Who was it?" he asked. Crow looked like he was trying his best not cross his arms like usual when he answered. He lifted his arms but suddenly just put his arms to his sides and shoved his hands into the pockets.

"Mmm, it's a count," Crow said. "Forgot his name, though. It starts with C, I think. Cr… Crab…? Crust… Crustman?"

"You meant Cressman."

Seto and Crow looked at the silver-haired girl standing under the doorway leading to Crow's room. Ren crossed her arms and frowned at Crow. "What took you so long?"

"Not important," Crow replied, and Ren rolled her eyes and walked towards them. She sat beside Seto and called Lux. The kitten then jumped on her lap and made a good sitting place there. Crow nodded at Ren afterwards. "Yeah, Cressman. Thanks. Okay, so that's the guy. He ordered one of his servants to steal something from the forest. It just so happened that something keeps the Thought Entities under control," Crow explained, and Seto could notice him looking restrained, like he wanted to move around but couldn't, like his movements were suddenly limited. Knowing Crow, he could have gotten something to play around with while talking. Something was wrong with him, Seto realised, but the talk about the culprit was important; he could ask Crow later. Ren petted Lux by the head as she blinked at Crow with confusion.

"Something that keeps Thought Entities under control?" Ren asked. "There's something like that?"

Crow nodded. "Yeah, apparently. When I found that out, even I couldn't believe it at first," he said. "But you know, when you think about it, it makes total sense. Even if Thought Entities are really passive, they could still at least attack you if you piss them off, but they don't."

"And it's because of that thing that keeps them calm, is that it?" Ren added. Crow nodded in response.

"Yup."

Seto blinked at the two of them as he put his hand on his chest, on the locket tucked under his cyan coat. _That… what was it?_ Seto thought. _That's what saved me and Mrs. Leico…_

"They're called Obosci," Crow continued. "Towns in here and other countries have their own obosci, but not all. Not to mention they're a natural non-renewable substance; we could say that the towns were built depending on the locations of the obosci. No one dared to take one from a town and examine it, which means no one had successfully made an artificial obosci."

"N-Not yet?" Seto asked. Crow looked at him and nodded. If that was the case, wouldn't that mean his grandpa had stolen the blue gem from a town? He couldn't have done that!

"Anyway," Crow said, "the count. Count Cressman. He told a servant of his to take Gakura's obosci from the forest. At first, he lied to the servant that it was something he lost, but in the end, he told him the truth. I'm pretty sure the servant went mad because of paranoia." Crow frowned at this, as if recalling something bad.

"We have to take it back," Ren suddenly said. "Not only to prove that Seto's innocent, but also to avoid another attack from the Thought Entities."

"But… how are we gonna take it?" Seto asked. "Confront him personally? Make him confess? Or—"

"We're not doing any of that," Crow interrupted. "For one: that's dumb. It's like you suddenly jumped in front of everyone and said 'Oh hey, it's me, Seto! Come and get me!' For two: I already talked to my friend."

Ren and Seto exchanged glances and looked at Crow with a confused look. "What do you mean?" Seto asked.

"Well, guess what?" Crow asked with a grin. "Actually, my friend that I always talked about is a knight. I turned to her for help."

Ren's eyes widened. "You _what?_" she hissed. "Are you crazy?! What if she went to tell the other knights where Seto is? Did you know just how much trouble you put us—"

_"Calm down."_ Crow cut off as he scowled at Ren. He crossed his arms in a slow and careful manner. "I know her. She wouldn't tell anyone; she herself said that we still had to stay low. And we have a plan."

"Give me a reason to believe her!" Ren demanded. "She's a knight. Work comes first. Not to mention the bounty on Seto's head could make anyone betray anyone. Didn't you guys say it yourselves?"

Crow sighed in frustration before he looked at Ren straight in the eyes, expression serious, before answering her.

"She's my friend," Crow replied. His gaze was still locked on Ren. "And also, she could have had me arrested the moment I turned to her for help. Have you forgotten? I broke Seto out of prison. I could be arrested for being an accomplice."

"But…" Ren trailed off, and after a few seconds, she sighed and leaned into the sofa. "Fine," she said in defeat. "But if she's really lying, I myself would punch you and that girl in the face. Got it?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Crow said in a dismissive manner. He then looked at Seto, who in turn just blinked at him in question. "She said she wants to meet you," Crow told him. "She wants to discuss the plan personally."

"What about me?" Ren asked expectantly.

"You're not coming," was Crow's immediate answer and Ren huffed in response.

"Um, at what time?" Seto inquired. "Is she coming here, or…?"

"At midnight, when everyone's asleep," Crow replied. "There's an abandoned café near here. Wouldn't take long for us to get there. She'd meet us there."

* * *

Seto never realised how dark Gakura was at midnight until he was outside walking towards the rendezvous point with Crow. The streetlights were turned off, and there was almost nothing to be seen. The only light was from the moon, but it was not enough to light the path he and Crow were taking. Crow claimed he knew exactly where the café was, and he had good vision too, so Seto let him take the lead. Seto made sure he wouldn't get separated from Crow as they walked. It was hard to see because of the darkness, and the light provided by the moon seemed to have given an eerie effect instead; Seto would freak out then and there if he ever got separated from Crow. That thought alone made him walk beside Crow a little closer than necessary. Their shoulders bumped a little, and Crow winced violently at that. He stopped walking and glared at Seto.

"Hey, that hurt," Crow snapped. "Watch where you're going!"

"S-Sorry!" Seto looked down at his feet. Crow was mad at him now, wasn't he? The two stood there awkwardly for a moment, as if they had no idea what to do next. Then he heard Crow sigh and felt his hand ruffle his hair.

"Alright, alright," Crow mumbled. He didn't sound angry at all. It was calm and soothing. "Just watch it next time."

Crow started walking again after that. Seto looked at Crow for a moment before following him, walking beside him. By then Seto remembered how Crow had been acting weird since morning, and he had been meaning to talk to him about it. He wouldn't let this chance slip away now, would he?

"Um, Crow," Seto started meekly. "I just noticed that you've been acting a little weird since this morning. Is something wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," was the immediate reply from Crow. Seto wasn't convinced by that, though.

"You're lying," Seto told him, and Crow shot a questioning look towards Seto. "You're acting weird. It's like you're suddenly tied up and you can't move around," Seto explained. Crow opened his mouth to say something, but decided against it and he sent Seto a look of confusion instead. "W-Well, I notice how much you always moved around and never stopped," the maroon-haired boy clarified, flailing his hands a little for emphasis. "U-Um, I mean it's s-something hard to miss, really. Your hands always like to stay busy. When you're not walking around, you'd always be busy fiddling with someone. And, well, today, you didn't do that, but you looked like you badly wanted to."

After Seto was done explaining, he tried his best not to look at Crow's green eyes. He felt embarrassed just telling Crow the things he always noticed about the boy. There was silence for a minute as they continued walking under the moonlight, and Seto felt more awkward as each second passed. He shouldn't have said that. Oh God, what exactly was Crow thinking about him now? Creepy? Why was he even so concerned about what Crow thought about him? Seto felt like running back to the house because of embarrassment until Crow chuckled.

"Wow," Crow said, amusement was obvious in his tone. "I never met anyone who noticed dumb things about me before."

"I-It's not dumb!" Seto protested. "I, uh, I don't know… it's anything but dumb, I guess…"

"Well, whatever, think whatever you like," Crow told him. "But, you know, you're right. Something's wrong."

Seto abruptly stopped walking and stared at Crow, who stopped walking as well.

"Something really happened yesterday, then…" Seto mumbled. "Is it the same reason why you didn't go home, too?"

Crow rubbed the nape of his neck as he nodded. "Yup," he replied a tad sheepishly. Crow looked back at Seto and pointed at the shoulder he accidentally hit just a few moments ago. "So this shoulder you hit," he said. "Be careful not to touch it next time because this is injured. I'm fresh out of the hospital."

Seto gaped at him. He processed what Crow had said a little longer than expected. Injured? Fresh out of the hospital? "What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said," Crow answered, and he started walking once again. "Remember the servant who stole the obosci? I said he might have gone mad because of paranoia. He was the one I talked to, you see. When he confessed he stole it, he wanted to get rid of me so that I wouldn't be able to tell to anyone."

Crow's eyes narrowed as he recalled his experience with the mad servant. "He tried shooting me at the heart with a revolver. Luckily I'm fast enough to avoid a bullet to the heart. My shoulder wasn't lucky though. I got hit there." Crow smiled afterwards, as if he found the last bit funny. Seto didn't find it funny, though. He didn't find any of that funny. "Afterwards I lost consciousness. Next thing I knew, I was at the hospital, and my shoulder stung. Then I saw my friend there. That's when I decided that we need her help and talked to her about this."

Seto couldn't believe what Crow had actually gone through just because he decided to help him. If Crow wasn't lucky that time, he… he could have died! Someone tried to kill Crow, and it was because of him. It was his fault, wasn't it? If Crow would continue on helping Seto, he might end up in a trouble much more serious than getting a bullet on his shoulder. Maybe… maybe if he told Crow to stop…

"Oh, we're here." Crow stopped abruptly in front of a small, dark building. Seto stopped walking as well and looked at the infrastructure in front of them with no sign of any interest at all. Crow walked up towards the entrance to examine it.

"She's not here yet," Crow said with a small frown. "Geez, always the late comer. When will she actually arrive on time?" When Crow didn't get any response from Seto, he turned to look at him with a questioning look. "Seto?"

He walked towards the redhead and put a hand on his shoulder. Seto flinched and looked at Crow, who in turn retracted his arm and gave him a worried look. "You okay?" Crow asked. "Does something hurt? Did you see something?"

"N-No, nothing like that…" Seto mumbled. "I… I was just thinking. You know, you've been helping out a lot, and thanks to you, I managed to stay this long," he continued. Crow raised an eyebrow in response.

"Okay, so?"

"W-Well," Seto stammered, "I think it's better if you stop helping me out."

There was an awkward silence after that. Crow was blinking at him, confusion and surprise was obvious in his face. Then he opened his mouth to say the smartest thing ever.

"What?"

"Don't get me wrong!" Seto replied defensively. "You've been a great help, really, but I'm just worried. I-I mean, look, you got shot because you wanted to help me out. What if something worse happened? I-I don't think I can—"

"Whoa, hey, stop that," Crow cut him off. "Listen. I decided to help out because I want to," Crow told him. "And because we're friends," he added. "Friends help each other out. We're friends, right?"

Seto blinked and looked down. Then he sighed and looked back at Crow again with a sheepish smile. They never called each other friends before, and hearing it come from Crow, it felt great.

"Y-Yeah," Seto said as his smile grew wider. "You're right. Sorry."

Crow grinned at him and he slung his good arm around Seto. "Yeah!" Crow said with an amused laugh. It wasn't as annoying and boisterous as they used to. They were like music in Seto's ears. "Anyway, she's not gonna be here for another ten minutes, I guess. We better sit down and talk about things."

The two spent the next ten minutes sitting side by side on the sidewalk and looking at the night sky, pointing at constellations and making up their own. They'd laugh at the silly constellations they made up, at the stories they shared, and at the jokes they made. Seto enjoyed Crow's company, and he loved his laugh. He loved seeing Crow's smile, and how his eyes shone when he ends up talking about craftsman stuff. It was the first time Seto saw this enthusiastic side of Crow; his sarcastic and cocky attitude was completely set aside. He was glad, glad that Crow decided to be this open to him, and he felt like this side of Crow will only just for him to see.

And only him.

* * *

haha what

anyway this is only like, a filler chapter, i guess? because i completely strayed off my outline for my fanfic. crow wasnt supposed to be shot but i thought its gonna be boring if everything goes smoothly in their search ykno. i even plan to write this chapter about crows experience with the servant but i thought "fuck it i dont know how to write guns" so this happened

i p much wrote this so that i can go back to following the outline for this fic haha

ok so i think they have a thing for each others eyes haha wow eye fetish

also i realised i joined a heck ton of fandoms ever since i took a break from this fic (kagerou project, magi, yea) so after exams are over, i struggled in finishing this chapter :|

but dont worry this fic wont be dropped yea

ok i said too much things now goODBYE


	6. authors note :(

**OKAY JUST A HEADS UP: THIS IS AN AUTHORS NOTE. YEAH THATS RIGHT AN AUTHORS NOTE. I DEEPLY APOLOGISE TO THOSE WHO THOUGHT THIS IS A CHAPTER UPDATE. IN SOME WAY, IT KINDA IS, BUT UH, YEAH. SORRY.**

anyway! i know its been months since i last updated prison break, and really, im very, very sorry about that. its just that reality struck me ad im going to be truthful: first, i lost inspiration for this story, but im taking it back. slowly, but surely. and second, im now a senior highschool student who will have her first college entrance examinations. i gotta focus.

now, to be honest, i had no plans on making an authors note for this story, but i have to, because i will be taking down this account after a month or earlier. DONT PANIC! THIS STORY WONT BE TAKEN DOWN. i will be moving to a new account along with this story, not to mention ill have this up in ao3 (archiveofourown. its a rad site-check it out!) too! im not sure how many followers ive lost since the last update, but hopefully not all of you had let go of this story since then, because this will be alive and kicking once im through with the first exam! i promise you that, you guys, because you guys are rad and you deserve all the creto *less than three*

oh, by the way, i plan to rewrite all the chapters: add some more details and scenes, spice them up more, because seriously, i reread through all the chapters, and theyre bland as hell, not to mention i made a lot of grammatical errors and typos (and then i still had the nerve to actually offer as a beta reader for "a pirates life for me". wow (that fic rocks. you guys should check it out) )

anyway! hopefully i can still go as hamnet after i take down my current account, bUT! if all else fails, you will surely find me here as californiapotatopowers. or you guys could just find the fic reposted and all that in the fragile dreams archive. the title would still be the same (hopefully), but the summary and all that wouldnt be. its gonna be a whole, fresh start!

again, i apologise for all the fuss ive caused bc of this authors note, and i promise that i wont let you guys down next time!

also questions: theres only one and its more than a months old now, ubt i cant bring myself to ignore it XP dont be afraid to ask questions! ill gladly have them answered

to hneko: thank you! as for your question, im acquaintances with the author of "a pirates life for me" (as you might have read above, i offered as a beta reader for this great story), and we have agreed that shell message me once she has the chapter finished, but so far no updates yet, and its been months, so i cant rly say when the next update will be; sorry to disappoint you. as for prison break, yes, therell be more chapters to this! i plan to make this a novel-length story (around 20+ chapters) after all


	7. last authors note!

hello, you guys! this will be the last authors note and chapter update in this fanfic because i finally got prison break reposted! *claps*

s/9649424/1/Prison-Break

tho, take note, many changes have been made to the story.

i added new characters, ocs actually, so that i can make some of the characters' bios possible; the most obvious case will be rens. this will be the first after years that ill have ocs participate completely in the plot in my stories, so i will have to ask for your help and support so that ill be able make my ocs blend in perfectly in the story, and that you guys may like them! also, i wouldnt add so many of them, so dont worry!

the story will still be told in third person limited point of view, but of different characters every chapter. if you guys are familiar with heroes of olympus, prison break will be narrated in the same way as the stories in heroes of olympus are. chapter titles will be named after the character whose point of view will be used in the story.

anyway, i guess thats all there is to it? im looking forward to seeing you guys again! *less than three* 


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